Many thanks to my good friend Henry Kaiser - who introduced me to my new friend Jonny Brelliott. Henry was one of the early adopters of Jonny’s TODP Overdrive - where his model hadn’t yet evolved to the modular format / concept that it is now - as per my pictured one. The core Pentode Tube circuit is the same in my review version as in Henry’s, as are the clipping options and controls - but more fixed in their arrangement. The exterior has an identical control topology with all the same ...

You should know by now that I’m a huge fan of Lichtlaerm Audio and have a special relationship with Joe’s Pedals here in the UK as well as Lichtlaerm’s Daniel Ringl. I own five Licthlaerm pedals to date as per my January update, and there are now two further candidates here - a 2-way Octave and Shimmer Reverb, alongside a really potent 60W Pedalboard Power Amp.

The As Above So Below Reverb is a fairly expansive and full fat Octave Shimmer type unit with FX Loop and ports for Ramping and ...

I’ve been wanting to cover this pedal since I first glimpsed it. Something about its elegant design really appeals to me - as does its Drive / Distortion output profile. It supposedly sits somewhat adjacent to the Music Man 112 RD, Epiphone Studio 10s, and the Silvertone 1464 solid state amps - for that kind of brasher garage-punk / rock sound. 

It starts with a fairly conventional control topology of Output / Level, Gain and Shape (Bass EQ), 

while it’s 3 toggle switches make it really...

"Legend has it that when the Devil crossed the Tamar river into Cornwall, he saw what Cornish folk would put into a pie and hastily turned back, in case he might end up as their next meal!"

This of course references that very classic but slightly odd Stargazy Pie which has Pilchards Heads poking out of the pastry, and is traditionally consumed on Tom Bawcock’s Eve, a festival held annually on the 23rd of December.

In any case - the Stargazy Reverb is a 7-knob preamp-driven shimmery ...

My good friend Phil doubles down on his killer Sun? No Model T Preamp to create the even more expansive Sun? Never Edition.

The previous single sided Sun? No has 5 controls - with an additional ’Mode’ switch - which allows you to flip between Vintage and Reissue levels of Gain Saturation.

"The mode switch allows access to both ’vintage’ and ’reissue’ levels of saturation."

For the new one - both Channels have the ’Reissue’ level of gain saturation, and we get an additional ’Custom’ ...

David Greeves has always had a great touch with fuzz pedals, and his new one is no exception. What we have here is the most exquisitely textured fuzzy-drive / fuzz preamp unit - with a fantastic palette of sounds in a really neat and simple package.

One of the things that makes this really special is that this OC201 Preamp / Fuzz has the earliest Mullard Silicon Transistor onboard - the OC201 variety - which looks unerringly close to a Germanium variety, but is in fact rather Mullard’s very...

As if the ToneX One wasn’t popular and appealing enough already - we now have an even more glorious Joe Satriani limited 3000 run Chrome edition - containing onboard a tonne of Joe’s own presets and sounds. Surely everyone is going to want one of these - you had better move quick! As of writing this the Joe Satriani ToneX hasn’t been listed at too many dealers yet - while you should order one as soon as it materialises - or you might miss out! I can see Andertons has this listed now - looks ...

So it’s fairly evident as to who Mooer is targeting here - with a kitchen-sink everything onboard approach for its flagship profiler / modeller. It comes in two versions - including an Li edition with onboard 7.4V 4750mAh rechargeable lithium battery - which lasts around 6 hours.

It uses the V2 version of Mooer’s MNRS technology (Mooer Non-Linear Response Sample) and it employs AI in various areas including the EQ-shaping. It also has 350+ Effects onboard, alongside a Groove Station Looper ...

So Catalinbread just launched its Airstrip CB-Range Discrete Console Preamp, and instead of covering that just on its own, I thought I should do some kind of group / genre overview.

I’m not sure whether my powers of detection are somewhat not fully up-to-speed for this exercise, for I was only able to uncover 5 suitable candidates for this selection - do let me know if you’re aware of others that fit this selection.

There seems to be some sort of a distinction distinction between ’...